Group Says Pentagon's Plan Would Expand Its Enemy List

By NEIL A. LEWIS

Published: April 8, 2005

Pentagon planners are proposing that military commanders be authorized to declare someone an enemy combatant and detain him if he belongs to any of hundreds of suspected terrorist organizations, a human rights group said on Thursday.

The extensive list of groups suspected of terrorism is part of a 142-page draft proposal to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that is intended to provide an all-inclusive guide for military commanders on their obligations and authority for detaining people.

John Sifton, a senior official of Human Rights Watch who provided the document, said it was a radical departure for the government to assert that membership in such a broad range of groups could qualify a person to be deemed an enemy combatant, a term that has previously been used mostly for members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The government has used the term ''enemy combatant'' for detainees who are not covered by the protections of the Geneva Conventions. The Bush administration has argued that such detainees may be held indefinitely, unlike prisoners of war, who must be released when combat ends.

The precise reach of the term, however, has never been explicit.

The draft report also contains instructions to military commanders to heed both domestic and international law against abusing detainees. A Defense Department spokesman said Thursday night that the document was still being reviewed.

''The development of this document shows the steps taken to help insure our service members understand the fundamentals of detention operations and the detainee safeguards necessary for successful detention operations,'' the spokesman said.